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Alfred Wilson and Susan Bro

On August 11 and 12, 2017, white nationalists from around the country gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia for a rally they called Unite the Right. They were met by counter-demonstrators who showed up to protest against the rally.

Heather Heyer, 32, was one of these counter-demonstrators. She was killed at the rally by a white nationalist when he drove his car into the crowd, also injuring 19 others.

Heather grew up in a small town in the area but was working in Charlottesville at a law firm when she was killed.

At StoryCorps, her supervisor and friend, Alfred Wilson, sat down with her mother, Susan Bro, to remember the first time he met Heather, while she was interviewing for a job.

Top photo: Alfred Wilson, Heather’s supervisor from the law office where she worked, with Susan Bro, Heather’s mother, at their StoryCorps interview in Charlottesville, Virginia in July 2018. By Grace Pauley for StoryCorps.

Bottom photo: Heather Heyer in April of 2014. Courtesy of the Heather Heyer Foundation.

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AW: Heather was very honest with me and told me, ’I don’t type. I’ve never worked in an office. All I’ve done all my life is bartend or waitress.’

SB: So you took a chance.

AW: Yeah. She could communicate with anyone. And, you know, I’m a black male and I might walk out to meet a client and Heather would notice that sometimes they didn’t shake my hand, and that would just infuriate her. And I’m like, ’Where does she get this from?’ Because she grew up in this little small place that’s not that diverse.

SB: She comes from a long line of stubborn people — stubborn and opinionated and not afraid to say so.

That day of the rally, what time did I call you from the hospital?

AW: About two o’clock. I remember my wife told me, ’Oh my God, Alfred. Do you see what happened on the TV?’ And she didn’t know that I was on the phone talking to you. I remember thinking, ’She’s going to tell me that Heather’s hurt.’ But you didn’t tell me that. And then everything was so quiet like somebody had shut the volume control off on the world.

SB: For me, losing my daughter was like, you’ll have a lot of tears one time then you’ll go numb for awhile. And, uh, I’m glad you’re finally able to let some of yours out because you worried me there for awhile.

AW: Yeah. In May, I was going to have two kids graduating at the same time, and all I could think was I wanted her to be there.

SB: Yeah.

AW: But one of the plus sides was when you showed up to the graduation party.

SB: Your family was very welcoming but I kept thinking, ’Heather’s the one that should be here.’

AW: Yeah.

SB: For me, grief is like standing in the shallows of the ocean, knee-deep in the water. Every so often a wave will wash over. And so I allow myself to cry and be really sad while that wave is there. But I know that it will go away, and that’s what gets me through.